The present invention relates to a system for connecting a central station through a telephone switching system to a remote terminal that is associated with a particular nondedicated subscriber telephone line. The remote terminal, as discussed hereinafter, may be considered as a data accumulator. However, it will be recognized that certain aspects of the present invention have application for other uses such as, for example, surveillance of the premises.
A number of services provided in homes or other diverse locations require the reading of a meter or other data accumulator on a periodic basis in order to bill the customer for the services. Similarly, data relating to a condition such as that of an alarm on the premises may require periodic monitoring.
The accumulation of data or the periodic monitoring of conditions at a large number of diversely spaced locations may be a time consuming and expensive job if accomplished by traveling to each location. It is thus desirable to accumulate such data at a central location without the necessity of traveling to each location and with a minimum of human intervention.
One of the more desirable ways of providing communication between a central station and a remote station is via nondedicated telephone lines that provide normal telephone service to the remote station. Nondedicated lines are available at most locations but for successful use of such lines the access system should be capable of connecting the central and remote stations without disturbing the customer at the remote location or disrupting normal telephone service.
In one form of the invention, a data accumulator is provided at the subscriber's station for registering the sum of services used as for detecting a condition at the subscriber's station. These services may constitute viewing of pay television programs or of programs from cable television. Also, the system might be used for reading water, gas or electric meters, etc., or for noting security conditions on the premises.
A central computer or billing processor may be provided at the central or control station for periodically, as once per month, reading the information in the accumulator. The periodic reading may be accomplished by the central computer placing a call through the telephone line to the subscribers' stations with means at the latter stations to intercept the call and place the data accumulator in connection with the billing processor. As will be seen hereinafter, the connection is effected without disturbing the customer or otherwise disrupting normal telephone service. For example, the subscriber's station may be conditioned to receive the call from the central station in a manner distinguishing the preconditioning from an ordinary telephone call, e.g., automatically as a result of a signal sent to the station, as through a signal imposed on a television program or a multiple telephone calling and muting technique.
The principles embodied in the system may also be used to monitor a subscriber's home or place of business for noises indicative of the presence of intruders when the premises are otherwise unoccupied. In that case, a microphone arrangement would be used instead of a data accumulator. Also, the telephone calls would preferably be initiated from the cental station and the period between them would be short, as for example, fifteen minutes.
It is accordingly an object of the invention to provide an improved novel method and apparatus for remote reading of information over nondedicated telephone lines.
Another object is to provide a novel and improved method and apparatus for remote reading of a data accumulator over nondedicated telephone lines wherein the accumulator provides information as to the amount of service used by a subscriber to the service.
A further object of the invention is to provide a novel method and apparatus whereby a central station under the control of a provider of services, such as a pay or cable television system operator, can periodically read a data accumulator device located at the subscriber's station over commercially installed, nondedicated telephone lines connecting the stations to telephone switching equipment so as to facilitate the determination of the amount the services used by the subscriber.
Yet another object of the invention is to provide a novel method and apparatus as referred to in the object immediately preceding in which the interchange of information between the data accumulator and the central station is made through the use of commercially installed, nondedicated telephone lines without disturbing the subscriber or disrupting normal telephone service.
These and other objects of the invention will become more fully apparent from the claims, and from the description as it proceeds in conjunction with the appended drawings.